Full Disclosure:One of the interesting things about blogging is the ability to disclose or not disclose any number of personal "things" - I usually err on the side of disclosure in regards to my training etc...And in that spirit - here is the story of my latest "injury"

During a pistol (single leg squat) holding a 24kg KB (second set second rep) I had a nice big crack in my left knee as I was approaching bottom - no pain other than the sensation of the crack and even finished a third rep without pain or issues. The knee felt "different" but not painful and I was able to finish my workout. By later that night and into the weekend I started to have some pretty good medial joint line pain and a small amount of swelling - some limping etc...Kneeling brings about a pretty significant posteriomedial muscle spasm that prevents me from straightening my knee for a while but does go away.

History - surgery 1996 arthroscopy - plica and cartilage tear,some time in late 2004 or very early 2005 I was demonstrating a pistol when I had a big joint shift and crack at the bottom - again some swelling etc...and no deep squatting for a while.

And for those of you interested I am going to try to provide as complete a history as I can in chronological order...R - ankle sprain - 6th gradeR knee MCL Grade 2 - 7th grade (this was a contact injury - two other wrestlers fell on the outside of my knee driving it in)Lower back injury 10th grade - speared in the back - diagnosed as a sprain/strain...told to restLeft wrist Fx (slight) late 10th grade - no cast just a splint (two weeks between injury and Dr. visit - not a smart kid)Re-injure lower back 11th grade - rehab for a couple of months this timeWisdom teeth extraction - lower impacted - top pulled - not sure the dates but sometime early 12th gradeCar accident (driver) 12th grade - passenger side impact - looking right at the time of the accident (classic oh **** moment) - head hit driver side window and knocked around during secondary impact - seat belt sprain of left SC jointSeptoplasty nose surgery for crushed and deviated septum - multiple nose fx etc...late 12th grade.Left Inguinal hernia repair late '90Remainder of college - no real injuries outside of lower back pain and a shoulder inflammation (left shoulder I think) - water soluable corticosteroid injectionGrad school 93-95 - nothing to speak of - some shin splints etc.. from running - right shin smashed on truck loading dock edgeLeft knee Arthroscopy - 962001 - Lasik both eyesApril 2001 - Appendectomy - laproscopic (mid abdomen, umbilical, and lower left incision sites) mid abdomen didn't close back all the way and now have a small diastasis rectiSeptember 2003 L5-S1 laminectomy - injured in early 03 during a bad squat attempt - lots of nerve pain etc... but surgery resolved this well.Sept 2004 - Right knee cartilage tear during a tire flip - lots of swelling and months before I could deep squat again - accupuncture for treatmentLate 2004-Early 2005 - Left knee joint shift as noted above2007 -right heel pain (some left as well)To current - Left knee crack last friday - cartilage suspectedVarious falls etc... some right hip irritation at times etc...and maybe some things I have forgotten but that is about it.send hate mail to my gmail account...(yes I just stole 3 minutes of your life that you will not get back!)

Now that is a fairly complete Injury History for those of you who have read my rants on advice and how careful you need to be in giving it - here is an example of what a history looks like.

Also keep in mind that with that history etc... I have squatted 518, benched 310 and Deadlifted 573 in competition. Completed the Beast Challenge, bend nails, tear decks of cards, rip phone books etc.... and most of that after most of those injuries etc... - Would you have guessed that that is what my history would look like?

So back to my knee - After working on Z drills over the weekend and resting the knee I was able to complete today's workout with maybe a sensation of a 1 on the 1-10 pain scale.Z works - period!

5 comments:

man, that is quite the injury history man. I'd hate to put mine on paper.sorry to hear about the knee but glad you got it turned around, pain wise, so quickly with z.good stuff.there's nothing like those weird joint noises when you are under load.

Great post! And I'm delighted to hear your downtime is minimal with the help of Z.

I've have never met an injury-free hard-core trained athlete like Adam my whole life .. Adam you are definitely blessed.

Although no where the extent of either Brett's or Mark's well documented injuries, I have had enough of them and the associated down time (4 years once due to a torn piriformus) to known I don't want any more serious ones.

These days its mostly "tweaks" for which I am extremely fortunate to have undertaken a serious approach to Z for both pre-hab and re-hab.